Hey.

I'm still alive, but buried in work. And play. And generally happy about it, which is a switch.

Tip for the aspiring writer: write things that make your [gender-appropriate portions of anatomy] hard, and fuck the rest. Don't try to be like somebody else. Tell it your way, and be as honest as you can with exactly why it warms your shorts, both with yourself and in the tale itself.

Remember: not all honest writing is good, but all good writing is honest.

And post your own version of the Frameshift Oath somewhere you can see it, so you never forget.

[The Frameshift Oath, for those of you who don't hang at the forums I hang at, runs like this:

I Swear by the Power of All Dark Gods that I Will Write Every Fucking Word Balls-Out for Glory.]

Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor is my attempt to get the EU back to its pre-Zahn roots -- specifically, to evoke memories of my all-time favorite Star Wars books, Brian Daley's Han Solo novels. Sure, it'll be violent and somewhat broody and all (it's the Popeye Thing: I yam what I yam) but generally it's gonna be -- in the words of My Favorite Writer -- a pop-top can of 100% pure Grade-A whipass.

Sorry I never got back with the Siren Call of Moral Clarity thing . . . but I realized (though I do have things to say on this particular lust, as I suffer from it myself) that fundamentally, moral clarity bores the shit out of me.